Snapchat Logo

Can you believe the logo for a company worth astonishing $20bn could have been created in just one evening by someone who is even not a professional designer? The Snapchat logo is a perfect example!

Meaning and history Snapchat Logo

Snapchat made its debut in summer 2011. The application was known as Picaboo back then and only later did it acquire its current name.

The project was the result of collaboration of three people. Reggie Brown had an idea to create an application for pictures that would be deleted automatically. He did not have any experience in business, so he decided to turn to Evan Spiegel. To make the idea come true, the two needed someone who was good in coding. They found Bobby Murphy and all the three were busy working at the project for several months.

In spite of the fact that Brown was the one whom the idea belonged to, he was soon tossed out of the company. The story that reminded the origins of another popular social network, Facebook, ended in the same way. Having filed a lawsuit against Spiegel and Murphy, Brown eventually settled with them for $157.5 million.

Symbol Snapchat

The first logotype appeared around the time the company was created. Evan Spiegel, Snapchat co-founder, claimed to have drawn it in his bedroom, on his computer. It took him as little as one evening to create the now-famous ghost-shaped figure. Trying to find the most suitable color scheme, he analyzed logos of quite a few popular applications. None of them used yellow, so Spiegel decided to stick to this color.

The original Snapchat logo featured a ghost smiling and sticking out its tongue. It was nicknamed Ghostface Chillah (along the lines of Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang Clan).

Faceless emblem Snapchat

In 2013, the company rolled out an update where the ghost had no facial expression at all. According to the company, that was not an accident: the ghost was supposed to reflect the diversity of emotions the members of the community had.

Font of the Snapchat Logo

The emblem is yet another example of the modern tendency to exclude company names from commercial logotypes. It is supposed that most users do not need a wordmark to realize what app the logo belongs to.

Color of the Snapchat Logo

Ever since the first version of the Snapchat logo was introduced, the emblem has always been based on the combination of yellow and white, with black as an accent color. The current version, however, uses a slightly different shade of yellow than the previous one: it is a brighter, almost acid shade. Also, in the previous version there was a small red patch (the ghost stuck out its tongue).